


Suddenly Balletomane

by dinolaur



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Army AU, Ballet AU, F/M, can you even call it an au when that's what they all did?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-09
Updated: 2016-03-09
Packaged: 2018-05-25 18:44:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6206269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dinolaur/pseuds/dinolaur
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There is a ballet academy in town not too far from the base that Bucky Barnes passes every once and a while.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Suddenly Balletomane

There is a ballet academy in town not too far from the base. It’s a large complex, the buildings made of red brick with large windows. One side has the studios, the other the dormitories, and they are separated by a green courtyard with lots of well-worn paths. Everything is surrounded by an old wrought iron fence. Bucky Barnes passes the academy every once and a while, but he never really pays it any attention until the day he sees the flash of red hair in the courtyard.

She is beyond beautiful, this ballerina. Slim, flawless skin, her arms move as light as a feather on the wind. She shifts up onto one toe, her other foot pointed up to the sky and back curved in an appealing arch.

Bucky stops right in the middle of the sidewalk to watch her, and Steve gets half a block before realizing that his buddy is missing. He jogs back and peeks between the bars to see what has Bucky so transfixed. “Stop leering at her,” he says, and Bucky doesn’t hear him. The only thing going on in his world is this red-headed ballerina.

Steve laughs a bit. “Hello? Earth to Bucky,” he says, waving his hand in front of Bucky’s face when he still gets no response. “Barnes!”

Yelling right in his ear finally snaps Bucky back into reality. “Wha—” he asks dumbly, blinking at Steve.

“Wow, that thunderbolt hit you really hard,” Steve marvels. Bucky looks back into the courtyard. The ballerina has stopped practicing. She gathers up her bag quickly and practically sashays over to the studio building, where a group of dancers is waiting for her.

Bucky feels sick to his stomach, a really, really good kind of sick. He wants to live on this cloud forever.

“You know, pal, I really think we should look into supporting the local arts,” he says, and Steve rolls his eyes and drags him away from the gate.

``

Bucky is in no way joking. He looks up the academy as soon as they get back to the base and sees that they have a performance scheduled in two weeks. “We’re going,” Bucky declares, writing it on the calendar and circling it with one of Steve’s fancy markers.

“I’m supposed to go to the movies with Peggy,” Steve tries to argue. Bucky just circles the date a little more aggressively.

He sees her in the courtyard a couple of times more. Both times she is there with other dancers, all of them bent or curled or stretched out into some shape that looks like it should be impossible for humans to achieve. He should say something, he thinks, not just stand on the other side of the fence staring at her like some kind of crazed stalker, but he can’t manage to get his body on the same page as his mind. All he can do is watch her, absolutely mesmerized.

``

After the show, he sends a single red rose to her dressing room. It’s really clichéd and so far from original or attention catching, but her existence alone has made him really dumb, and whatever charm he had before just isn’t coming to him.

Steve looks torn between teasing him for the rest of their natural lives and actual astonishment and awe over the whole thing. “She’s really got you star struck,” he comments as they make their way out of the crowded auditorium. “Usually can’t shut you up during a show, and I don’t think you said a single word.”

“I was watching,” Bucky scoffs. “And it was a ballet performance, you philistine. You can’t talk during those.”

Steve offers him a dry grimace, and Bucky will absolutely not be shamed about how many times Steve has almost had to hold a hand over his mouth to keep them from getting kicked out of movies.

They walk out of the doors and into the fresh spring night. “You really aren’t staying,” Steve asks. “Try to find her and talk to her?”

Bucky shoves his hands into his pockets and grumbles something unintelligible. Steve grins and throws an arm around him. “You’re so cute. Like a little kid with a crush. Did you write ‘Do you like me? Check yes or no’ on the note you sent?”

“You’re an ass,” Bucky says, bristling in a very unintimidating manner and definitely not blushing. “You’d still be fumbling around Peggy and writing Mr. Steven Carter in your notebook if she hadn’t marched you out to dinner.”

``

It’s a few days later when Bucky is walking past the academy, both trying to loiter around to catch a glimpse of her and sprint past because he really could die of mortification.

So of course she is standing out there. Her ankle is propped up on the shoulder of a boy, her partner from the performance. The worst happens, and the boy looks out past the gate and meets Bucky’s gaze. He grins and says something to her. She turns around and for the first time sees him.

“Oh, fuck,” Bucky says out loud.

She drops her foot to the ground, ankles coming together and toes pointing out in opposite directions. The boy picks up a bag from a nearby bench and hands it to her. He settles in, and she walks towards the gate. Flight or fight instincts demand that Bucky get out of there as quickly as possible, so naturally his feet seem to be frozen to the ground.

“Hello.” She has an accent. He knew she would have an accent. The program from the performance said she was born in Volgograd. He knew that, so he shouldn’t be surprised to hear it. He should also say something in response.

“Hi,” he manages, despite his mouth being dry as a desert. Up close, he can see a dusting of freckles across her nose and shoulders.

She reaches into her bag and carefully pulls out that stupid, clichéd rose he sent her. For a moment, Bucky wants to sink into the ground; then he realizes: she kept it. He is grinning like a maniac before she even asks, “You sent me this?”

He wants to say something smooth here, but he can’t seem to nail any part of this encounter, so, still grinning, he nods and says, “Yeah, yeah, you were—yeah.”

His stomach flips when she smiles. It’s very slight, her lips just barely curved. Her slim fingers wrap around the ribbon that ties the rose and note together. “You have me at a disadvantage,” she says. “I don’t know your name.”

“James,” he says. Dumb, dumb, dumb, because no one left on this earth calls him James anymore, not even his little sister, but he also feels really stupid talking to this gorgeous, graceful girl and introducing himself as Bucky. "James Buchanan Barnes."

Natalia shakes his offered hand.

``

Bucky doesn’t know how they manage, but every day the sergeants get more and more long winded. They have been standing here at attention for something like a thousand years, and he doesn’t know what time it is exactly, but he is sure it’s after 18:00, which means Natalia is out of practice and waiting for him to show up.

“Dismissed,” the sergeant finally hollers, and Bucky barely spares Steve a grin and wave before he races off.

“You’ve been severely demoted since he met that girl,” Peggy comments, nudging Steve in the side.

“My little man’s growing up,” Steve says in his best imitation of a wailing yet proud mother.

``

They mostly spend time alone, as their schedules don’t often have a lot of overlapping free time. So Natalia hasn’t met any of his friends, and he doesn’t know any of hers, outside of the stories they tell each other. But they finally both have an entire Saturday off when Steve insists on being introduced.

> [Bucky]: Do you mind if Steve and Peggy come to lunch with us?
> 
> [Natalia]: A double date, how sweet
> 
> [Bucky]: Steve’s nagging. I can ignore him but Peggy is staring at me right now like im in interrogation and I think im about to start spilling gov secrets I dont actually know
> 
> [Natalia]: she must break you
> 
> [Natalia]: *Russian flag emoji
> 
> [Natalia]: but no, that works because Clint is lying on my floor rn crying over pictures of dogs and he might try to adopt one if he doesn’t get distracted

They arrive at the diner early enough that Peggy and Steve are already deep into their cutesy sharing—e.g., trying to eat everything before the other one can—of their fries and milkshake before Natalia and Clint walk in. Bucky stands up as she walks over, because his mother did manage to teach him some good manners before she died, and kisses her before she sits.

“Awww,” Steve, Peggy, and Clint say simultaneously and grin at each other. Natalia flicks Clint’s ear hard before turning to greet Steve and Peggy.

Everyone makes their introductions, and Bucky turns his head down sharply to stare at Natalia when she calls herself Natasha. Peggy and Steve look confused, and Clint giggles behind his hand. She explains, “Natalia is my name, but I’ve gone by Natasha since I moved to the States.”

“Why didn’t you tell me,” Bucky cries, punching Steve in the arm because he has been a failure with women (and men, for that matter) his whole life until Peggy came along and had the patience to deal with his awkwardness, and so he does not get to give Bucky that look.

Natalia smiles and kisses his cheek. “You were very cute, James. I didn’t want to correct you.”

Chin propped up in his hands, dripping with false innocence, Steve asks, “Has he told you yet that everyone calls him Bucky?”

``

Steve is already a fairly light sleeper, but he seems to have some sort of extra sense to let him know when Bucky is up to something. Just like every other night this week, as Bucky throws off his blankets and fishes around under his bunk for his boots, Steve wakes up.

“When’s the last time you actually slept in your bunk,” he whispers.

“Peggy has her own room, yet you two seem to be saving even your cuddles for marriage,” Bucky retorts. He doesn’t need the lights on to know that Steve is giving him a look that says he would throw something at his head if it wouldn’t make a lot of noise.

Bucky is an army brat. He grew up here and has had years to become an expert in sneaking on and off the base, and in the past few months he has also become very adept at avoiding all the security cameras at the ballet academy. He also knows the weak parts of the fences to avoid and the best holds under the ivy growing up the dormitory walls.

Natasha has left the window open, and he climbs inside and right into her arms, where he stays until the sky starts to turn gray and he runs a real risk of being late for wake up call. She keeps kissing him even as he climbs back over the balcony railing. He laughs and calls her Juliet, and ever the romantic, she responds, “I hope not. They commit suicide in the end.”


End file.
